


Wabenbau

by HannaGoesUp



Series: Pray Tell Me Sir (Whose Dog Are You?) [2]
Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Asexual Relationship, Domestic Fluff, Multi, Polyamory, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 17:14:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3537518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HannaGoesUp/pseuds/HannaGoesUp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vignettes from the formation of a triad.  In which Jupiter Jones finds a very sweet life building itself up around her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wabenbau

“You don’t really want to sleep with me, do you?” Jupiter feels stupid the minute she says it, because she’s spent several weeks trying to think of the gentlest, most tactful way to phrase the question and _Hello, that was very much not it_ , and now Caine is looking at her with an expression of panic and hurt – but mostly panic. 

“Your Majesty – Jupiter – no, I . . . it isn’t you, I never wanted you to think –“

She reaches out and runs her hands through his hair, hushing him, catching him before he runs any further with the stumbling apology on his lips. “Caine. Caine, listen, it’s fine, it’s okay.” 

“I want to make you happy, however that – it’s okay?” 

“It’s okay,” She says again. “Caine, I know what an asexual is, I’ve been on the internet. It’s okay.” She leans forward and kisses his cheek, as chastely as she can, and when she pulls back Caine is looking at her with that _look_ he gets sometimes, the dawning wonder in his eyes that says she is a miracle he never expected to witness. 

“I want to make you happy.” His eyes have gone puppy-dog-liquid, and there’s so much love in his voice, in the way he catches her hand in his own and _leans_ towards her.

“You do.” Jupiter smiles and squeezes his fingers, running her other hand through his hair. “You do, Caine, I promise.” 

“But you’re not – you want –“ He’s looking for a way to let her out of it, to keep her from feeling _obligated_ , and she tightens her grip on his hand just to prove her point.

“I want you. I love you, and you love me. And the rest is stuff we can figure out, I promise.” She sounds confident because she _is_ , because she is an impossibly reincarnated space queen with an angelwolf boyfriend and this is really pretty simple compared to the things they’ve already managed to solve together. 

***

The bees never sting her, but the house eventually does – a fat splinter of aged wood from the back porch that lodges under her knuckle. Stinger finds her rooting through drawers in search of a tweezers, or the space equivalent, swearing creatively while she does so.

He catches her injured hand and guides her into the front room, eases her onto the couch and pulls back the curtain so he’ll have better light to work by. She expects him to use some futuretech gizmo to fix it, but he does it the old-fashioned way, digging the splinter out with a needle, and he laughs at her curses in a way that does not feel like laughing at her.

When he’s done, he raises her hand to his lips and kisses her knuckles, courtly as an old-fashioned knight, and she laughs even as the touch makes her skin feel warm and tingly. 

***

“Oh my _gods_ , why is everyone on your planet so obsessed with _monogamy_?” Kiza laments in overdramatic tones, draping herself over the edge of the sofa. Jupe doesn’t know in which sense Kiza means “her planet”.

“When I really rule the world I’ll make a law against your boyfriends getting jealous of each other.” She jokes, and Kiza sticks her tongue out at her, upside-down. 

“Easy for you to say, you don’t have these problems.”

***

Caine is really adorable when he’s trying to phrase things for dumbed-down-Earth-sensibilities. He gets stiff and formal and awkward, like someone trying _so hard_ not to offend her even though it’s become abundantly clear from their time together that he isn’t going to do that.

“All I mean is that . . . if Your Majesty ever finds herself unsatisfied . . .” He clears his throat.

“Are you giving me permission to sleep with Stinger?” Jupiter makes her tone teasing, waggles her eyebrows in an intentional parody of lasciviousness. 

Caine’s expression barely flickers – he looks so very serious. “It wouldn’t have to be Stinger. Your Majesty has a wealth of options.” 

But there’s a wicked glint in his eyes, and it only takes one more eyebrow-waggle from Jupiter before he cracks and starts smiling. 

***

Caine smells like engines and warm blankets. Stinger tastes like woodsmoke and cold water. 

Her favorite thing about them is the way they love each other – with roughhousing and mock-arguments and old, old jokes she’ll never actually get. Her favorite thing about them is the way they move around her, and the way she moves around them, like bees circling in flight. Her favorite thing about them is being nestled between the two of them on the couch, warm and solid and each beloved in their own way.

Her favorite thing about them is everything.

***

“So, when is it we will meet this boyfriend?” Aunt Nino asks.

Jupiter stops herself, just barely, from asking _Which one?_  
She brings both of them to the inevitable dinner – and Kiza, too, because Stinger is there as Caine’s distant-relative-old-friend-landlord and Kiza’s presence is supposed to help sell it. 

Jupiter is pretty sure her mother isn’t fooled. But Stinger brings fat chunks of honeycomb rich with sweetness, like they haven’t had since they left Russia, and Caine lies with winning earnestness about the sign under which he was born. If Jupiter makes a point of sitting between-and-too-close-to both her men, nobody belabors the point. 

***

She moves to the farm piecemeal, without really ever intending to do it. She leaves her favorite sweater, then her _Indiana Jones_ DVDs, then her laptop, her pillow, her toothbrush. 

Eventually she brings the telescope, cradling it in her lap while Caine drives, and neither one of them leaves that night after dinner. Stinger knocks a hole in the attic roof, nonchalantly as opening a window, and they spend the evening up there watching her namesake climb its way across the stars.

**Author's Note:**

> So basically, I wrote [this fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3453116) from a prompt featuring asexual Caine, and in the process of writing a followup to that fic I realized that what I really, really wanted was to see Caine, Jupiter, and Stinger together in a triad where Jupe/Stinger are sexually involved and all of them are romantically involved and everyone gives Caine all the physical affection ever because asexuality does not mean he can't be a giant sucker for touch and cuddles. So HERE IT IS.


End file.
